Catfish

The film centers around photographer Yaniv "Nev" Schulman, recorded by Ariel Schulman, and Henry Joost. This is all I'm going to reveal about the plot, because I strongly believe that you should see this movie knowing virtually nothing about it. If I even gave a synopsis, I'd be giving too much away.

It's a film with a rather dark tone, and smartly edited by Zachary Stuart-Pontier. The documentary does make some strong points, such as "Who is this person?" "Who can I trust?" "What's real, and what's falsehood?" It makes one wonder what length some will go to hide the truth, and wonder what they would do in a situation like Nev's.

The film starts off rather charming, but eventually the film ends up becoming so nervously unsettling, and emotionally devastating that it's painful to watch. I know it made me not want to know what happen, because it just so hard to fathom, but I just decided to grit my teeth, and keep watching. The film is highly thought provoking, question raising, and the tone Joost, and Schulman set helps the film immeasurably.

The film is hardly ever pretty to watch, but am eye opener to be certain.

I give Catfish *** out of ****

It's 2007. Yaniv Schulman gets one of his photos in the papers. Then he is contacted by 8 year old Abby from Michigan who sends him a painting of the photo. As his friendship with the young girl over the internet grows, he gets to know her mother Angela, father Vince, and beautiful older half-sister Megan. Yaniv's brother Ariel and Henry Joost film him for a documentary. As Yaniv falls for Megan, cracks start appearing in the story. Yaniv goes on a search for the truth.

If taken on face value, this has an intriguing story of the modern internet world. There are problems with this idea. It's hard to take this on face value when the whole point is not to take things on face value. It's obvious from the start that the internet relationship is based on false grounds. The question for me throughout watching the movie is how real Yaniv is actually being. The whole movie could be catfishing the audience. In the end, it's difficult to take this completely on face value. On the other hand, the reveal of Angela and her psychological story are actually quite interesting.

It's authenticity will remain in question. And if it is indeed real, the motivation of the filmmakers themselves are unclear.

But there is a truth in Catfish that reflects a lot about ourselves. For most, the Internet is a place to merely extend their social life. But for some, it could be the only place where they could find it. We are called to be mindful of these people. This is a movie for our time. 4/5 Stars

Note: The trailer is indeed misleading, which may have caused much disappointment to viewers with a specific expectation. To those who has not seen the trailer and desire to watch the movie, avoid the trailer.

I remember in the very late 90's discovering the world of Yahoo chatrooms ... talking this way and that way with total strangers, sometimes being myself, sometimes lying through my teeth. Creating new usernames as a female to talk to lesbians every once in a while seemed a fun thing to do as an 18yr old lad, never succeeding to convince any to talk dirty to me. HA! The things we do.

And that is where this movie comes in. Meeting people online ... checking out their profiles and thinking ... "yeah ... not bad", talking more online and getting to know them and developing feelings for this entity, god knows where on the planet, typing their words to you and maybe, just maybe feeling the same way.

And how much of it is true ... ?

This was an intriguing watch, playful and suspenseful and by the end, full of heart that is a far cry from the gripping thriller documentary style movie portrayed in the trailer (which I saw after at one reviewers request) but none the less, I enjoyed the movie for piecing together something many of us have done ... but just not to these extremes. Give it a go ... =]

A documentary about a man (Nev) who starts a relationship with a woman he meets on face-book, and starts to wonder how truthful this person is. If you watch the trailer for this movie it is very misleading, not to say its a bad movie but it's not at all what I expected. This is a true life account that I'm sure has happened to many people. An 8 year old girl named Abby starts to send Nev paintings she has done after seeing a picture Nev took in a newspaper. Out of that Nev begins to talk with Angela (Abby's mom) and it carries over to Megan (Abby's sister). After quickly falling in love with Megan, Nev soon discovers Megan may not be who she says she is and plans a trip to visit her and find out the truth. Every once in a while a movie comes along that you just have to keep watching and your not sure why, and when it's over your not sure why it had this grip on you, this is one of those movies. This is not for everyone, being that it is a documentary and slow in parts, but it is very interesting and has an ending that sneaks up on you and affects you in a way you can't explain. At least it did to me. I give it a B-